The Great Game

Elizabeth May, the Green Party's new leader, is a parlementary veteran with decades of experience in Ottawa. This experience may (no pun intended) bear fruit sooner then expected. She has taken to the red chamber to recruit senators for the green party and apparently there is interest from senators

Here is the story from the Globe and Mail.

The new leader of the Green Party said yesterday she is talking with "more than one" senator about joining her party.

"I am talking to a couple of friends who are in the Senate to find ways that they may be able to help the party, including whether they can become Green Party senators," Elizabeth May said in a telephone interview.

Ms. May, a career environmentalist who was elected Green Party Leader last month, also said she is solidly in favour of the present unelected Senate even though that is "not yet" Green Party policy.

The ability of senators to conduct in-depth studies without worrying about elections has produced many useful policy proposals, she said.singling out the Senate's work that inspired the banning of bovine growth hormones from milk.

"The time horizon of the average politician is the next election and making sure they're re-elected, which skews their focus on issues [away] from what really matters for the future of the country or the planet," she said. "The benefits of the Senate and the achievements of the Senate are massively undersold, particularly by the Senate itself."

Ms. May would not identify which senators might join her party, but her ties to the Progressive Conservatives as a minister's assistant in the Brian Mulroney government may offer some clues.

The most likely senator to make the jump is Mira Spivak, a former Red Tory appointed by Mr. Mulroney in 1986 who has led a host of environmental battles.

Ms. Spivak, 72, who has been sitting as an Independent since February, 2004, endorsed Ms. May's candidacy for the Green Party leadership. Her assistant said Ms. Spivak could not be interviewed by phone because of a hearing impairment and stated "the rumour is not accurate."

Senators count in the funding formula used for caucus research money, but it is unclear whether Green senators would qualify as a caucus without a presence in the House of Commons.

Ms. May said she hopes that having Green Party senators would allow her to take part in the daily scrums with reporters outside the House of Commons.